Jacobs pleads guilty to human trafficking, sexual assault of child

A
30-year-old man received a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty in Denton
County to human trafficking and sexual assault of a child.

William
Jacobs pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault of a child and one
charge of trafficking of persons younger than 18 on Friday.

His three
20-year sentences will be served concurrently.

According
to court documents, Jacobs and a woman convinced a minor to join them at a
Lewisville hotel on or about July 7, 2012, and then brought her to Amarillo and
out of state to have sex with about 30 men for money.

Shayla
Williams, 20 — the co-defendant in the case — is also charged with assaulting
the then-14-year-old that night, as well as two counts of indecency with a
child — sexual contact, and one count of trafficking of persons younger than
18. She is expected to either reach a plea agreement or go to trial within the
next month, said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney.

Jacobs’
case was scheduled to begin trial this week after his arrest Aug. 31, 2012. His
attorney, Tim Powers, said he was assigned to the case the following month and
put more than 150 hours of work into preparation of the case.

“The role
of a defense attorney is to zealously represent their client and get the best
possible result through the prism of the facts and the evidence the DA would be
able to present in court,” Powers said. “In this particular case, had we taken
the route of a jury trial, it was my estimation that Mr. Jacobs would have
served the rest of his life in prison. Thus for him, this was an excellent
result.”

The
victim allegedly began talking to Williams online in July 2012, and Williams
picked her up from the victim’s mother’s home in Allen, according to
investigators’ affidavits.

Williams,
Jacobs and the victim stayed at a hotel in Lewisville that night, where Jacobs
assaulted the girl, according to court records.

They also
photographed the girl and posted those pictures online to solicit people to
have sex with her for money, according to the affidavits.

On July
30, 2012, Lewisville police located the victim alone at a Lewisville hotel
after a missing person report had been issued by the Allen Police Department,
according to court records.

The case
was filed by a federal agency — the North Texas Trafficking Task Force — under
Homeland Security Investigations, and Beck said the Denton County District
Attorney’s Office was happy to accept it.

“Our
office was more than willing to accept these cases from the federal North Texas
Trafficking Task Force,” Beck said. “The task force was very pleased with this
result [20-year sentence], as were we. Shortly after sentencing, we received an
e-mail from a task force member praising our assistant DA, Michael Dickens, and
our office for working so diligently on the case.”

The two
suspects were arrested in an Arlington hotel parking lot on Aug. 31, 2012, and
both confessed during separate interviews with police, according to
investigators’ affidavits.

JENNA DUNCAN can be reached at 940-566-6889
and via Twitter at @JennaFDuncan.

MEGAN GRAY can be reached at 940-566-6885 and
via Twitter at @MGrayNews.

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